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2015: General Discussion

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Another thing I have spotted on the map, it seems alcohol has gone from Corner Coffee, it was always down as "Corner Coffee and bar" on the maps before, now its just corner coffee. Which I guess with Towers St. Bar and grill now having a proper bar they will just make corner coffee a coffee shop.
 
This is more than an error or oversight, you don't just completely miss a ride off a map. It looks like Blade will not be open this season, I'd imagine it will be SBNO. Yet it operated fully at FHT. I won't miss it but it's one ride less which is not good.

:)
 
It's absolute madness, the park is clearly unable to function due to the stranglehold Merlin have over the finances
 
I doubt it will affect how the crowds are soaked up as I rarely see it with that much of a queue anyway, but...

- Now there's nothing for younger guests to go on if they are in the area because certain members of the family want to go on the bigger rides.

- There's one less 'thrill' flat, leaving 2 remaining IIRC, and this is the 2nd year running that there's been a thrill flat removed.

- There's one less ride on the overall lineup. Yes, I get that there's the new Octonauts roller coaster, but still!
 
It wouldn't be quite as bad if Merlin were in dire financial straits. However they're not. Greed, pure greed.

:)
 
It's a shame if it does go, it was a great Family thrill ride.

What state was it in, I know it looked a bit ropy, but it always seemed reliable, and it is a pretty primitive ride and easy to maintain and operate.
 
Its still on their website though. Wouldn't surprise me if it has gone though - either that or a fault has been found with the ride and they are unsure if it will be running this season - just noticed the map says "V9" in the address bar.
 
Though surprising it's not on the map at all, wouldn't be surprised if it's something to do with future construction... I doubt Towers took the delays with Smiler lightly, and might well be planning for things even further in advance...
 
It's far too early to be for a possible 2017 coaster, I suspect it might have gone at the end of the year but the closure has been brought forwards to save money.
 
It's not impossible that it is a safelty sign-off thing. The certificates usually get renewed early March. This is why when the black hole closed they could run it for Half-Term but not the main season as they couldn't get a new safety certificate.
What could go wrong with a ride that simple that causes it not to open is a mystery though.
If it was construction related then I would expect Nemices and the path from Ripsaw to Skyride to be closed as well...
 
You couldnt fit a coaster where Blade is, its too small a space, whatever goes there would be another flat of some sort. Which they need to soak up the queues.
 
Is there still the possibly it could be open for some of the season but as they expect it to close before the end they have chosen to keep it off the map and avoid complaints when it does. It's not exactly a major ride that needs to be highlighted. But then that seems like way too good forward planning if that is the case.

Out of interest it shows how much of a mess that map is that it took a while before anyone even noticed it was gone. Maybe they just ran out of space :p
 
You couldnt fit a coaster where Blade is, its too small a space, whatever goes there would be another flat of some sort. Which they need to soak up the queues.

Rumours are that IF a cross-valley coaster gets built then the station goes where Blade/Ripsaw is and then the track goes down into the valley.

The old woodie plans from 10 years ago had the station in Ug Land, but Thirteen & Rita took that space really.
 
You couldnt fit a coaster where Blade is, its too small a space, whatever goes there would be another flat of some sort. Which they need to soak up the queues.

No of course not. However it could form part of the area for a new coaster. The original rumours for SW7 were that the station for a new coaster could be where Blade is.

In terms of the new map, can't say I'm a fan this year. I'd like to see a complete redesgin of the map sometime soon. With the current version they have too much crammed into too smaller space. I'm disappointed to see that the Resort attractions remain on the theme park map; with the addition of lodges and high ropes there just is not the space for all of this. It results in there just not being enough space for a good representation of the theme park. The map portrays that the right hand side of Towers Street (as you stand at the top looking down) is half the length of the left hand side.

:)
 
The new map is painful on the eyes. A new design is most certainly needed. The resort sides of things needs to be moved off the theme park map too. With the paper version in park they should have the resort side of things on the back. I know for marketing purposes they want everything on the front although really if it's on the back people will not ignore it, I wouldn't even mind if you had the theme park map with some smaller advert in the corner saying something like "turn over to discover our fantastical hotels, waterpark, golf and tree tops course".

If families work out how the hell the website works and they find the CBeebies Land interactive map, that has been updated with Octonauts (http://www2.altontowers.com/cbeebiesland/map/).

It's interesting Blade has disappeared. It seems too early for SW8 work (unless it will be substantial enough to require preliminary works this season). So like someone else has said I think it was probably planned to be removed next season but with these whole cuts to operations it has just been decided to keep it SBNO for this year.

I'm worried about what's to come this year with these cuts. I'm assuming more staggered openings across the park. Maybe even some rides being closed on quiet days. Either way I won't be surprised whatever happens, I just hope eventually any negative changes do affect guests to the point that Merlin gets hit by it.
 
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